


We've Got Spirit, How About Ew

by Dewstorm



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Explicit Language, First Meetings, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 06:09:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8960602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dewstorm/pseuds/Dewstorm
Summary: Nico hates football with a fiery passion, but hey, that blonde cheerleader isn't so bad.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This ended up longer than I expected it to be.

You know, there is something extraordinarily calming when one is blasting Avril Lavigne at maximum volume after locking themselves inside a car in their high school parking lot at 8 pm. What is even more relaxing is having one’s friend bang on the car door trying to get you out because “it’s been, like, 30 minutes, Nico. Get the hell out of my car and let’s go!” 

Yep. Relaxing. Calming. 

And fuck you Piper Mclean for fucking lying about where the fuck they were going.

Last time Nico checked, they were supposed to go to their local thrift store (even though Piper and Nico were the wealthiest out of all their friends and could 100% afford all clothes and should definitely not be shopping at a thrift store, they enjoyed the novelty of it). Piper decided to be the world’s largest asshole, take Nico to their high school football game instead and not tell him in till they got into the parking lot. What the actual fucking shit? 

A football game. Nico. A football game. Nico. He knew he was an emo little twerp and completely self-aware that he was playing into the antisocial stereotype of hating high school football games, but that still didn’t stop the fact that even the idea of going to one made his skin crawl. So, yeah, there was no way he was getting out of McLean’s car (she didn’t deserve to be referred to as her first name). 

He really didn’t get it, McLean hated these things just as much as Nico did, why in the world would she take him here against his free-constitutionally-granted-will? There really was no reason- 

Oh. 

Wait. 

Jason fucking Grace. 

That Goddamned bastard was on the Goddamned team, wasn’t he? Oooooh, McLean, she must have it bad if he’s the reason they were in the parking lot right now. No way she’d drag herself to a game if it wasn’t for that blind Superman. This also means Nico has to kill him so he never has to accompany McLean again. 

“Nico, I’m sick and tired of your dumb shit! Stop being the world’s largest asshole and let’s go!” Piper screamed outside of the car over Ms. Lavigne. Oh, so he’s the world’s largest asshole? She aggressively jiggled the door handle on Nico’s side and for a moment, he really thought she’d rip it off.

Nico simply looked over at her, pointed at his ears and mouthed, ‘Can’t hear you.”

He could totally hear her. 

The door handle jiggling and yelling stopped abruptly, catching Nico a little off guard. He looked over at Piper again as her face bore an exasperated expression.  
“Look,” she started. “You know I don’t want to be here any more than you do. But if I have to go through misery, I want my misery buddy to be there with me. So, for the love of the gods, please get out of the car and let’s get this over with. Please. Do it for me.” 

Nico maintained eye contact as he slowly turned the music up louder. 

“And I’ll buy you McDonalds every day after school for the rest of the year.”

Nico never got out of a car so fast in his life. 

 

_0_

 

Okay, so, mistakes were made. The temptational sin of McDonalds has once again caused Nico to end up in an unfortunate situation. 

Annabeth and Hazel were already in the bleachers when Nico and Piper started ascending them. He was guessing they were all here for their guys. Percy, Frank, and Jason. A little depressing, considering Nico was as gay as the double-fucking-rainbow, and he didn’t have any buff football head to make out with after the game. Oh well, if there was one thing Nico was an expert at handling, it was depressing shit. 

The girls started chatting to each other about what positions the guys had that night. Even though Nico couldn’t care less about the sport, he was cognizant enough to know that Frank was one of the best players in their entire state. The man could plow through an entire team without even breaking a sweat, all while whispering apologies. You wouldn’t know from looking at him, but the guy already committed to a college in his sophomore year on a football scholarship. The kid was amazing, and he didn’t even want to play football. Frank always talked about wanting to be very good at golf, because he didn’t have full body tackle anyone in golf (unless you wanted to actually make it interesting). 

Percy was a wide receiver, as he was usually one of the faster players on the field. He would get the ball and wiggle around all his opponents to get to the end zone. Jason was, of course, the quarterback. The guy was in love with giving orders and being in charge of his field. 

Within a few innings or whatever of the game, Nico could see the three were working together as a unit. Jason would throw a long pass to Percy downfield, Percy would turn and run, and Frank would bulldoze through all of the enemies that followed him. Even though at times they were extremely predictable, not a single player could stop them. Occasionally, Jason would pass the ball back behind him to Reyna, who was the running back, and watch as she dominated the field. 

If there was one thing football had going for it, it was the spandex uniforms. Nico could tell why Piper wanted to see Jason play football. It definitely wasn’t for the game itself, but the way Grace’s ass looked in the white, stretchy fabric was almost worth it. Butts never looked so good.

Okay. Enough with this dumbass, boring football shit. We’ve all had enough useless knowledge. 

Nico grew antsy as the game took forever. Seemingly every three seconds another play would end and they’d have to start up a new one. And he was starving. He tapped Hazel on the shoulder to inform her that he was going to embark on a journey to find food. 

He made his way down the bleachers, dodging his high school peers as they violently cheered on Michael Kahale as he caught the ball. 

In was incredibly crowded beneath the stands. Students moved everywhere, chatting uselessly and taking up space. These assholes were making it difficult to find food. He heard the echoes of a loud cheer from the bleachers as someone undoubtedly did something astonishing. 

Nico continued to search for the concession stand as he casually pondered high school culture. Why did these idiots care so much about this dumb sport? There are literally people dying! California is in a fucking drought! Flint doesn’t have clean water! What about Syria and Aleppo? The bees are disappearing, Goddammit! Ice caps are melting. Florida is going to be underwater in a couple years. Are all of his high school peers really so shallow and stupid that they-

Nico’s pretentious thoughts were interpreted as someone rammed into him from the front. Hard. The person had had one of their arms semi-outstretched and their elbow clocked Nico in the chin as the other person’s left side collided with his. Last time he had checked, he was only here to spectate football, not play it. Both fell to the ground with a significant amount of force and entangled with one another.

“Ugggh,” Nico heard the other person grumble as they landed on the ground. Nico turned to him, ready to explode. Did this jerk-ass not look up to see where the fuck he was going? Was he so stupid that he couldn’t recognize other human beings trying to live their lives too? Couldn’t this fuckwad-

Whoa. This guy was hot. 

His assaulter sat up and was rubbing his wrist, which he seemed to have fallen on. He had blonde, curly hair that looked disheveled. His pretty-esque, tanned face was adorned with freckles that dusted across his nose and cheeks.

He looked familiar. Nico had definitely seen him before, maybe they had class together once? Maybe they had class together now. What was this kid's name? 

Michael? No. 

Malcolm? No. 

Austin? No. 

“Will,” Nico said thoughtfully. 

The blonde glanced over at him, confusion, guilt, and something else all over his round face. “Um, yeah. Nico right? Look, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying any attention. Are you okay?”

Nico stared at his lips while he spoke. He was still rubbing his wrist, wincing. Nico felt disbelief, this preppy-looking kid knows his name? Maybe they did have class together…

“Nico?” Will had asked again, looking flustered. Nico realized he was staring and probably being a maximum creep. He just wasn’t very used to attention from strangers, especially ones as good-looking as Will whateverhislastnameis. 

“Yeah.” Nico said lamely, “I mean, yeah, I’m fine no worries or whatever.” He’d usually insult a person who’d put him in this sort of situation, but with Will, he found he couldn’t for some reason as he looked at his concerned face.

Will smiled, it almost made Nico smile (and Nico doesn’t smile, because you know, depressing shit). He even felt little skeleton butterflies in his stomach. The blonde slowly stood, Nico noticed him being gentle with his wrist. He then, also tentatively, shyly, outstretched his unhurt hand to Nico, who was still on the ground. 

That’s when Nico saw it. 

He saw what Will was wearing. 

The blonde boy was sporting a red and white cheerleaders uniform.

Well, fuck me sideways, Nico thought. This kid is a preppy, cheerleading, loser asshole. No way in literal hell could Nico, an emo ugly duckling who wears skull bracelets, ever get it on with a sunshine puppy who enthusiastically chants ‘We Will Rock You.’

“Well, you just had to ruin it with your dumb outfit,” Nico mumbled under his breath as he stared at Will’s helping hand.

“Excuse me?” He responded, not hearing what Nico had said. 

“Will!” 

Someone also dressed in a cheerleading uniform stood a few feet away from them and was gesturing wildly for Will to go over to her. She seemed to have a sense of urgency. 

“Oh shoot, halftime,” Will mumbled. All of a sudden looking nervous and spared his injured wrist a quick glance before putting his attention back on Nico. Who, by the way, was still sitting on the ground like a complete dumbass. “Are you sure you’re okay?” 

Nico nodded and reached for Will’s hand. The blonde helped pull him up, but goodness gracious, the feeling of Will’s hand in his triggered warm feelings deep inside of Nico. It felt like all of those skeleton butterflies fluttering inside of him were now wearing cozy Christmas sweaters with kittens on them while drinking hot cocoa and laying on a tempurpedic mattress. That is how his hand felt in Will’s. Whoa. 

“Well, Nico,” Will mumbled. Nico would have said he was blushing if he didn’t know any better, “if you say you’re fine, then I have to get going now.” 

Oh wait, Will, no, I actually think I broke my arm! Fractured it in three different places, my gosh this looks bad. Oh well, looks like you can’t go to halftime and have to stay here to take care of me. And while you’re at it, why don’t we make out or something? Doesn’t that sound awesome! Nothing heals up an arm like the lips of a blonde cheerleader. 

That’s what Nico wanted to say, of course. 

But instead, he said: “Okay.”

Will nodded, and smiled almost sadly, before running over to meet his friend. Nico thinks her name is Lou, but he’s not completely sure. She nudges him with a sly, knowing smile when he gets to her and they walk away together with what looked like a tiny argument. 

Weird. 

Where’s the food again?

 

_0_

 

So, Nico had bought four hot dogs and diet coke. A light snack. He sat back down in the bleachers next to his half-sister and started to eat the first one. 

Piper looked over Hazel at Nico, “Oh, so you bought enough for everyone?” She said, gesturing at his hotdogs. 

He flipped her off as he took another bite.

Hazel smiled sweetly, “What took you so long? The second quarter is almost over.” 

Nico thought back to Will and his incredibly distracting face, “I was accidentally full body tackled.” 

Okay, so maybe he wasn’t full body tackled and the girls’ faces basically said, “Nico, why are you always full of shit.”

They proceeded to ignore him (a common occurrence) and put their attention back on the game.

“This isn’t even interesting,” Piper whined. “Our team is so far ahead in points that it’s just boring to watch at this point.” 

Annabeth and Hazel mumbled their agreement as the second quarter came to an end with Clarisse La Rue kicking a successful field goal. 

The game announcer spoke through the loudspeaker as the players jogged off the field for halftime. The voice rambled on about how this was truly a rousing game (it wasn’t) of football and complemented both teams (the away-team sucked butt). He then cheerfully welcomed the marching band onto center field. 

A bunch of kids with various instruments stormed their way onto the fake grass, followed closely by the cheerleaders.

Yep. There was Will. 

Everyone on the field was still getting into position, so Nico took the time to ask some subtle questions about the guy who brutality crashed into him at top speed. 

“That guy with the blonde hair, the cheerleader, what’s his name?” Nico asked innocently, his question directed at Annabeth, as she literally knew everything about everyone at their school.

Annabeth squinted at the cheerleaders before stated, “Oh, that is Will. Will Solace.” 

Nice, he’s got a last name. 

“He’s also really gay.” 

Nico felt his entire body freeze up. This was the most perfect news he has ever heard in his fucked up life. 

Then the depressing thoughts hit like they always do. Will still can’t like him. Will can’t like him because he’s Nico. People like Will don’t like people like Nico. It’s a fact that has been proven to the dark-haired boy time and time again. 

“Oh,” Nico replied. 

The girls must have sensed something off about him because none of them asked why he had brought up Will in the first place.

That’s probably for the best. Oh well, he can still enjoy wishful thinking. Why would Annabeth even tell him that? It seems a little cruel. 

The band began to play, they were surprisingly very good. Probably the highlight of the game so far in Nico’s opinion. The cheerleaders started expertly backflipping and cartwheeling around the field with a certain ease and grace. I would be better if they all didn’t have those semi-disturbing, fake smiles on their faces. 

Nico, of course, had his eyes on Will the entire time. He noticed how he did a one-handed cartwheel while everyone else used both hands. Was he showing off or something? Or did he really fuck up his wrist that bad?

The band continued to play as all the cheerleaders gathered together. They started lifting each other up and Nico realized they were in the process of creating that cliche pyramid thing. A small feeling of anxiety crept through him when he saw Will at the bottom. He could barely make out a similar feeling on Will’s face also.

The pyramid was completed, and they were all holding their position as the crowd clapped joyfully. The girl above Will had one foot on Will’s right shoulder and the other was being supported by his left hand. The injured one. Nico noticed it trembling. Will’s face no longer had a fake smile, but a grimace. Shit fuck.

The next couple of seconds happened very quickly. Will’s wrist bent at a very unnatural, very painful-looking angle, and he lost his grip on the girl above him. This, obviously, caused both Will and the girl to lose their balance, which obviously caused the entire pyramid to collapse onto one another. They fell into a giant pile red and white as the crowd went silent from apparent shock. 

Nico heard Piper giggle.

Nico probably would have laughed out loud any other day, but concern had consumed him. Was Will okay? He was at the bottom, so he was most likely crushed by all the other bodies above him. On the other hand, he was also on the outermost side, so he might have a avoided the biggest pile up in the middle.

Most of the cheerleaders were getting up now and brushing themselves off. The football medic jogged onto the field and started talking to kids. Then Nico saw Will. Another guy was helping him off the ground as the blonde cradled his wrist to his chest. Even from his spot in the bleachers, Nico could tell his hand was hella fucked up. Will started to talk to the medic and the two walked off the field together.

A weird feeling coursed through Nico. Did he feel...guilty? Responsible?

“I have to go.” He said to his friends, maybe a little too loudly. They looked confused and concerned but nodded him off anyhow. 

He jogged his way down the stands and down below them. Nico frantically looked around him trying to spot his cheerleader.

Surprise. It wasn’t very difficult as most of the people had gone up to the stands to see what had happened. Will and the medic were walking away with their backs facing Nico. 

“Will!” Nico called after him. Stupid. That was a stupid thing to do.

Will turned curiously towards him as Nico speed walked his heart out over to them.

“Nico?” Will said. 

“Hey,” Nico replied. 

The two kind of awkwardly stared at each other without saying anything. The medic coughed.

“Will,” Nico started again. “I feel, like really bad. And like, this is partly my fault that you ruined the pyramid by breaking your wrist and everything. I mean, I guess it is not really your fault that your wrist broke, but you know what I mean. Whatever. It’s just that I was mad at you because you ran into me, but like, I wasn’t really paying any attention either, you know? I was thinking about Flint, Michigan. It sucks over there, they don’t have clean water. Anyways, my point is that I’m sorry because I wasn’t paying attention and that I let you run into me and that you broke your wrist because you hurt it when we hit the ground and then that cause a buttlode of people to fall on top of you.”

Will blinked at him, seeming a little astonished. Then, he gave a small smile. 

“I really don’t mind that we literally ran into each other, don’t be sorry.” Will blushed. Huh? “I...I was so embarrassed when I saw it was you and shocked when you knew my name, I didn’t even think you knew I existed.” 

He was looking anywhere but Nico and his face was dark red, “I was always trying to be brave enough to talk to you in school, I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me.” 

The fuck?

“You just always looked so cool and in control. You’d never want to talk to goody-goody like me.” 

THE FUCK?

“The fuck?” said Nico. 

Will spared a glance at the medic, who looked a little annoyed, before looking down at his wrist. “Maybe after I get a cast on this thing, you could make it up to me for breaking it and we could like, I don’t know, babysit together or something...only if you want-”

“Yes.” Nico interpreted. 

The medic was now forcefully ushering Will away, “I’ll see you in Biology tomorrow!” Will called out. 

Ah. They do have a class together…

Wait, what just happened? 

Did Nico just get a date with a blonde cheerleader? Who babysits? And they are going to babysit together? Whoa, That’s a bunch of stuff Nico said would never happen.

For some reason, he didn’t mind. At all. 

Well, he’s finally excited to go to Biology. 

(Football still sucks).

**Author's Note:**

> Literally, no one asked for this


End file.
